(Phys.org) —Thermometry – the measurement of temperature – is critical to a wide range of applications, including many industrial processes, biomedical monitoring, and environmental regulatory systems. However, measuring ...

(PhysOrg.com) -- "Carbon nanotubes have a lot of really nice properties that make them good for photonics," Laurent Vivien tells PhysOrg.com. Ever since the discovery that carbon nanotubes have photoluminescence when encapsulated ...

An emerging class of atomically thin materials known as monolayer semiconductors has generated a great deal of buzz in the world of materials science. Monolayers hold promise in the development of transparent LED displays, ...

(Phys.org) —Researchers at the University of Rochester have measured for the first time light emitted by photoluminescence from a nanodiamond levitating in free space. In a paper published this week in Optics Letters, they ...

(Phys.org)—An international research team has created unique photoluminescent nanoparticles that shine clearly through more than 3 centimeters of biological tissue—a depth that makes them a promising tool for deep-tissue ...

Observation of a scientific rule being broken can sometimes lead to new knowledge and important applications. Such would seem to be the case when scientists with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Lawrence Berkeley National ...

(PhysOrg.com) -- By fabricating ridges coated with silicon dioxide (SiO2) on the surface of a semiconductor, scientists from the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) in Japan have shown ...

Substantial advances for applications of nanocrystals in the fields requiring a continuous output of photons and high quantum efficiency may soon be realized due to discovery of non-blinking semiconductor nanocrystals. ...

Photoluminescence

Photoluminescence (abbreviated as PL) is a process in which a substance absorbs photons (electromagnetic radiation) and then re-radiates photons. Quantum mechanically, this can be described as an excitation to a higher energy state and then a return to a lower energy state accompanied by the emission of a photon. This is one of many forms of luminescence (light emission) and is distinguished by photoexcitation (excitation by photons), hence the prefix photo-. The period between absorption and emission is typically extremely short, in the order of 10 nanoseconds. Under special circumstances, however, this period can be extended into minutes or hours.